Salvator Mundi was purchased by an unidentified buyer bidding via telephone after a protracted bidding war that stretched for nearly 20 minutes at the New York auction house.

Salvator Mundi, believed to have been painted sometime after 1505, is the only work thought to be in private hands.

The painting, only recently rediscovered and the last da Vinci left in private hands, fetched more than four times over the Christie's pre-sale estimate of about $100 million. It was more than twice the old auction record set by Picasso's Les Femmes D'Alger, which sold for $179.4 in May 2015.